Brad wrote: "But the material (books about meditation) is creating a kind of tension."

We try to pound our square lives into some round fantasy ideas about what meditation really is, then become angry or sad when we discover it will never what we thought. The things we feel then could be the beginning of wisdom, or maybe just more stupidity. It depends on what we do with it.

You know, most of us don't give a rat's fart about old brother Camping. Sorry about that.. You're coming off a little like a proselytizing ex-drunk when there are very few of us here to take advantage of your urgent message. Are you familiar expression "preaching to the choir"?

I dunno, mysti, I know some people who believe some crazy sheeit and they're pretty okay underneath it all. Go back a few (or less?) generations in any of our families and the stuff they would have had us believe would curl our precious little pampered buddhismist toes!

But, you know, they were good to us: We're alive.

Harold looks sort of cuddly. I want to hug Harold. It's okay Harold, the world is not going to end. Let's hug and say that together... and we can go camping, Harold. Imagine that, me and Harold, camping...

mysterion, I know you choose your words carefully when you are misleading people so you can avoid lying directly. Like when you said, "BTW I post as me and not an annoying mouse." That might be true as words go but it is still an obvious lie to anyone paying attention.

Well, as long as we're being conciliatory here, I suppose you're not a complete a-hole then. There is a lot that can be said positively about you, I suppose, if you're willing to really dig, some of which might be almost complimentary. Friends?

Mysterion, I haven’t even been reading the blog lately, - but as it generally seems to me, - even if you imagine yourself to really “dig” – (assuming you haven’t changed lately) what you will see as “complimentable” is not part of the essential core. You do not seem to be able to touch that. - And it does not much differ among different religions. That which you would consider “complimentable” would still be of the shell of things. Otherwise your general views would have been completely different.

And again to my original point - whatever poor M sees in religion or the spirit - [i.e. - in references to it he might come across] it is a secular view.

He is unable to surpass that.

Whether he praises it or condemns it.

- It is within his materialistic sphere. - It is merely according to standards which may still be called primitive. - He is not able to actually tell what things are about. - It takes mental abilities he does not possess and he does not recognize. Like a blind man laughing at those implying the possibility of eyesight. Within a society of the like. [I mean his colleagues at the academic establishment] And with a head of a really thick nature. Whatever you say to him he will merely repeat his previous views.

You need to discern and affirm for yourself the underlying meaning of his saying, “If you wish to see Buddha Nature, you must first rid yourself of your arrogant pride.” It is not that one lacks sight, but the seeing of which he spoke is based on ridding oneself of one’s arrogant pride. The arrogance of self is not just of one kind, and pride takes many forms. Methods for ridding oneself of these will also be diverse and myriad. Even so, all of these methods will be ‘one’s seeing Buddha Nature’. Thus, you need to learn both to look with your eyes and to see with your Eye.

mysterion, Was that a lie or did you only think it was true? Either way Mr. Nixon never said it. I'm glad I was able to help you out here. I don't guess you make many things up as that would take some creativity. I think you just have a lot of wrong information in your head or get confused or something.

It's sad, really, when you consider Mysterion spent years teaching college classes, a situation of complete autocratic rule. It must be disappointing to him to post here and get so much flak from people who don't need to suck his ass for a grade. On the other hand, it must be similar in that neither his students or his readers here seriously give a shit about what he says.

His Nixon quote was classic.. mysterion could have found a hundred critical things to say about Nixon. But the truth just wasn't bad enough for him so he made something up. There's no color in mysterion's world. It's all black and white.

anonymous: There is also quite a bit of wisdom for the wisdom guy in part 2.

Days can be sunnyWith never a sigh,Don't need what moneyCan buy.Owls in the tree singTheir evening of song.Why shouldn't we singAlong?I'm chipper all the day,Happy with my lot.How did I get that way?Look at what I've got.

I wonder whose lecture M attended? Normally, I would think he was making it all up but he went into such detail for a reason. So I think he must have actually left the house this time to go hear someone. Good for him.

R [- I've been trying to post this again and again and it wouldn't get through]
said...

As for extremely stupid Mysterion @ 12:26 AM: - Emptiness may be a “key concept” in some Buddhist philosophies; Nishijima - as a very good example - almost never mentions it. Either way - being a “key concept” does not make it the essential core. ESM seems only to be able to follow the words of others, - whose empty state - as his own - he is unable to discern. This world is full of intellectual assholes, - who might express their wrongness and their conceit in various ways. Being versed in their words only might effect your appearance, - not your true value.

The spirit is an actual reality. It does not depend on any religion or concept. It would correspond to what is referred to as “the world [or worlds] of formlessness” in Nishijima’s notes to the Shobogenzo. For those who are able to experience it is said to be more real than the physical world. However, - at a certain point, - marked by the rank of a zagen in the Soto sect - one gains understanding of it. Even if it is not expressed that way.

ESM rarely expresses understanding of anything. Merely familiarity with the work of the likes of his assholeness. I referred to the state of the academic establishment previously. SM (which is hereby to be a short form of ESM) is unable to grasp it. If he would he might escape his stupidity, - which is still a long way from gaining an eye.

I said he possesses nothing but intellectualism. (almost) As a response he links that which he does. Does it affirm my claim or does it negate it? Source.

As for extremely stupid Mysterion @ 12:26 AM: - Emptiness may be a “key concept” in some Buddhist philosophies; Nishijima - as a very good example - almost never mentions it. Either way - being a “key concept” does not make it the essential core. ESM seems only to be able to follow the words of others, - whose empty state - as his own - he is unable to discern. This world is full of intellectual assholes, - who might express their wrongness and their conceit in various ways. Being versed in their words only might effect your appearance, - not your true value.

ESM rarely expresses understanding of anything. Merely familiarity with the work of the likes of his assholeness. I referred to the state of the academic establishment previously. SM (which is hereby to be a short form of ESM) is unable to grasp it. If he would he might escape his stupidity, - which is still a long way from gaining an eye.

The spirit is an actual reality. It does not depend on any religion or concept. It would correspond to what is referred to as “the world [or worlds] of formlessness” in Nishijima’s notes to the Shobogenzo. For those who are able to experience it is said to be more real than the physical world. However, - at a certain point, - marked by the rank of a zagen in the Soto sect - one gains understanding of it. Even if it is not expressed that way.

The spirit is an actual reality. It does not depend on any religion or concept. It would correspond to what is referred to as “the world [or worlds] of formlessness” in Nishijima’s notes to the Shobogenzo. For those who are able to experience it is said to be more real than the physical world. However, - at a certain point, - marked by the rank of a zagen in the Soto sect - one gains understanding of it. Even if it is not expressed that way.

Shin = Jodo Shinshu (Land, New Pure)a.k.a. New Pure Land Buddhism: a Buddhism with a Heaven you can go to. (Nirvana goes West)

Jodo Shu (my lineage) = Pure Land (re-branded nibbana - extends the concept to those without a fully developed ability to think in the abstract)

When I married in September 1984, this immediately became my lineage - without vows, study, effort, or intention. It (Jodo Shu) is an old family business. Thus, I am painfully aware of Kuge.(scroll way down the linked page...)

Once upon a time, I, Chuang Chou, dreamed I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was Chou. Soon I awakened, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man.

Actually if you click on half Mysterion's links like only the preface to a bizarre treatise on Dewey, it's apparent that he's a copy/pasting image-making machine. With a strange choice in captive audiences. that last link was copyright 2000.

Furthermore, anyone who cites having a japanese wife as a credential (M's not the only one who has done that) is revealing some image issues. I'd say something about the pics of the dog but that's not really fair.

Those moments of satori when you are young are such a surprise I think because you wonder what the hell happened that I am suddenly waking up in this moment when the moment used to be everpresent.

It happened to me when I was 7 and sent off for something I was intrigued by in an ad in the back of a magazine. When the Liquid Smoke arrived I anxiously opened the plastic sample package expecting a miracle and it was just nasty crap.

But in that moment I was timelessly catapulted into a memory of being captivated with liquid rock in the form of molten lava, and intrigued, dove head first into Mt. Etna leaving behind my golden sandal.

I won't say that I hate the man because hate is complicated, misunderstood and in some circles undervalued. But I can say that much to my chagrin, he consistently increases the neural activity in my medial frontal gyrus, right putamen and bilaterally in my premotor cortex whenever he opens his mouth. But it's more like a reptilian repulsion. I don't think I hate him or wish him ill. My aversion has to do with his fixed attitude rather than any intellectual position.

You won't believe this but I live in Kolkata, Eastern India and that billboard appeared in Bengali near the end of Shealdah fly-over! I've been wondering what it's about every time my bus crosses that point and I sit on the right-hand-side, but I've been forgetting all along to try and tune in to the station. (Also I don't care)

As someone who grew up in the church, I must challenge Mr. Camping with the following verses:

But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.Matthew 24:36,37

...And...

Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.1 Thessalonians 5:1,2

So how is it that Mr. Camping has inside information that apparently no one is to be privy, except one being, according to the book he professes to follow?